Che Jesus is an image depicting Jesus Christ in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara, which is itself based upon Alberto Korda's iconic Guerrillero Heroico photo.
Che Jesus is an image depicting Jesus Christ in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara, which is itself based upon Alberto Korda's iconic Guerrillero Heroico photo.
The image was created by Chas Bayfield, Martin Casson and Trevor Webb for the Churches Advertising Network (CAN) in the UK, who used it to encourage church attendance for Easter 1999. The poster used the slogan: 'Meek. Mild. As If. Discover the real Jesus. Church. April 4.' [1] [2] 50,000 leaflets were distributed to churches across the UK and posters were put up at bus shelters, railway stations and hoardings. [3]
The artwork for the poster was created by photocopying a painting of Christ on to acetate and laying this over a copy of Korda's photo. By tracing over the two faces, a composite face was created. This was then traced again and inked in to create a black and white copy. This was scanned in to an Apple Macintosh, the background changed to red and the type added by Matt McMullen.
The launch of the Che Jesus image became international news [4] and it later appeared in the 2000 exhibition Seeing Salvation in London's National Gallery, was featured in the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome, and appeared in the 2006 Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon exhibition at the V&A Museum.
The image was met with anger by conservative church members and some politicians who condemned the marketing strategy as blasphemous for using a "violent Communist and atheist" to promote Jesus. [5] Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who converted from the Church of England to Roman Catholicism some years previously, said: "We should be modelling ourselves on Christ, not modelling Christ on us." [2] Former Tory MP Harry Greenway, sponsor of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, described the poster as "grossly sacrilegious" and demanded that those responsible for it should be excommunicated. [6] He threatened to protest to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, in the "strongest possible language". [7] American commentator George Will dismissed the campaign as "symptomatic of a silliness that respects no borders". [8]
The Bishop of Ely, the Right Reverend Stephen Sykes, defended the campaign and rejected accusations that it was blasphemous. He said: "The intention of the advertisement is to cause remark," he said. "It has been successful." [3] He added: "While an analogy is implicitly drawn between the revolution of a political leader and that of Jesus, it is not said or implied that Jesus was a political revolutionary or would have endorsed the actions of Che Guevara." [9] [10] The Reverend Tom Ambrose, a member of CAN and Director of Communications for the Diocese of Ely, said the poster was designed to make people think about Christianity. He said: "We want people to realise that Jesus is not a wimp in a white nightie or someone who is a bit of a walkover, but a strong, revolutionary figure." [2]
La Higuera is a small village in Bolivia located in the Province of Vallegrande, in the Department of Santa Cruz. It is situated in the La Higuera Canton belonging to the Pucará Municipality.
Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda or simply Korda, was a Cuban photographer, remembered for his famous image Guerrillero Heroico of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, better known as Tania or Tania the Guerrillera, was an Argentine-born East German Marxist revolutionary, who played a role in Cuban intelligence operations after the Cuban Revolution and in various Latin American far left revolutionary movements. She was alongside communist guerrillas led by Che Guevara during the Bolivian insurgency until she was killed in action by the Bolivian Army Rangers.
Alberto Granado Jiménez was an Argentine–Cuban biochemist, doctor, writer, and scientist. He was also the youthful friend and traveling companion of Che Guevara during their 1952 motorcycle tour in Latin America. Granado later founded the University of Santiago de Cuba School of Medicine. He authored the memoir Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, which served as a reference for the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, in which he was played by Rodrigo de la Serna. An elderly Alberto Granado makes a short appearance at the end of the film.
James Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist. He is best known for elaborately detailed work inspired by the Irish Celtic artistic tradition. However, his most famous single piece is a two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968, based on a photo by Alberto Korda.
The Motorcycle Diaries is a posthumously published memoir of the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It traces his early travels, as a 23-year-old medical student, with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina, in January 1952 on the back of a sputtering single cylinder 1939 Norton 500cc dubbed La Poderosa, they desired to explore the South America they only knew from books. During the formative odyssey Guevara is transformed by witnessing the social injustices of exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and the tattered descendants of a once-great Inca civilization. By journey's end, they had travelled for a "symbolic nine months" by motorcycle, steamship, raft, horse, bus, and hitchhiking, covering more than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 mi) across places such as the Andes, the Atacama Desert, and the Amazon River Basin.
Buddy Christ is a parody religious icon created by filmmaker Kevin Smith, which first appeared in Smith's 1999 film Dogma.
Felix René Mederos Pazos was a prominent Cuban poster artist and graphic designer.
The French freighter La Coubre exploded in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, on 4 March 1960 while it was unloading 76 tons of grenades and munitions. Seventy-five to 100 people were killed, and many were injured. Fidel Castro alleged it was an act of sabotage on the part of the United States, which denied any involvement.
Appearances of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (1928–1967) in popular culture are common throughout the world. Although during his lifetime he was a highly politicized and controversial figure, in death his stylized image has been transformed into a worldwide emblem for an array of causes, representing a complex mesh of sometimes conflicting narratives. Che Guevara's image is viewed as everything from an inspirational icon of revolution, to a retro and vintage logo. Most commonly he is represented by a facial caricature originally by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick and based on Alberto Korda's famous 1960 photograph titled Guerrillero Heroico. The evocative simulacra abbreviation of the photographic portrait allowed for easy reproduction and instant recognizability across various uses. For many around the world, Che has become a generic symbol of the underdog, the idealist, the iconoclast, or the martyr. He has become, as author Michael Casey notes in Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image, "the quintessential postmodern icon signifying anything to anyone and everything to everyone."
The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's regime by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
The legacy of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is constantly evolving in the collective imagination. As a symbol of counterculture worldwide, Guevara is one of the most recognizable and influential revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. However, during his life, and even more since his death, Che has elicited controversy and wildly divergent opinions on his personal character and actions. He has been both revered and reviled, being characterized as everything from a heroic defender of the poor, to a cold-hearted executioner.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, intellectual, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. His life, legacy, and ideas have attracted a great deal of interest from historians, artists, film makers, musicians, and biographers. In reference to the abundance of material, Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez has declared that "it would take a thousand years and a million pages to write Che's biography."
Guerrillero Heroico is an iconic photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion. By the end of the 1960s, the image, in conjunction with Guevara's subsequent actions and eventual execution, helped solidify the leader as a cultural icon. Korda has said that at the moment he shot the picture, he was drawn to Guevara's facial expression, which showed "absolute implacability" as well as anger and pain. Years later, Korda would say that the photograph showed Che's firm and stoic character. Guevara was 31 years old at the time the photograph was taken.
The Che Guevara trend, or "Che chic", is a fashion trend featuring the Argentinian-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The phenomenon has attracted attention from the media, political commentators, songwriters, and Cuban American activists due to the popularity of the T-shirt design, Che's political beliefs, and the "irony" of buying a T-shirt depicting a Marxist icon. As op-ed commentator Chris Berg noted in The Age, "Ironically, Che Guevara's longevity as a cultural symbol has been thanks to the very economic system he sought to destroy".
Chevolution is a 2008 documentary film which examines the history and legacy of the photo Guerrillero Heroico taken by famous Cuban photographer Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez. This image has thrived for the decades since Che Guevara's death and has evolved into an iconic image, which represents a multitude of ideals. The documentary explores the story of how the photo came to be, its adoption of multiple interpretations and meanings, as well as the commercialization of the image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Ely Ensign was the news and current affairs magazine for the Anglican Diocese of Ely from December 1989 until January 2007.
Communist symbolism represents a variety of themes, including revolution, the proletariat, the peasantry, agriculture, or international solidarity. The red flag, the hammer and sickle and the red star or variations thereof are some of the symbols adopted by communist movements, governments, and parties worldwide.
The Route of Che is the term used to refer to the route followed by the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara and his men in the region of Ñancahuazú, Bolivia in 1966 and 1967. This ended with his execution at La Higuera on 9 October 1967, followed by exposure of his body and burial in an unmarked grave in Vallegrande.